Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Tuscan Potato, Kale, and Sausage Soup

One of my favorite restaurants used to be Olive Garden. The main reason I loved the restaurant was for those big squooshy, salty, garlicky breadsticks they had...

...oh and yeah, the pasta was pretty good too! But I loved those breadsticks! (And actually just between you and me, I think I've come up with an incredible gluten free breadstick recipe that is very similar, but that's another post for another day!)

Another thing I loved about Olive Garden was their soup. Occasionally several co-workers and I would go for the breadsticks, soup, and salad lunch at the restaurant. My favorite soup served was "Zuppa Toscana." I loved the zesty creamy soup with the big chunks of Italian sausage, potatoes, fresh kale, and spices. It was such a robust soup with amazing flavor and color!

Several years ago I tried my hand at making it at home. It took a few tries, but I think I came up with a good imitation! Now, I make this soup using gluten free chicken broth and gluten free sausage but the flavor is just as delicious, and I always look forward to a big warm bowl when making it! A piece of Sheltie Girl's French bread would be wonderful with this soup! Enjoy!

Directions:Cut sausage into bite size pieces. Bake in a 350 oven for 20 minutes until cooked through and crisp. Set aside. Cut bacon into bite size pieces. In a large soup or heavy dutch oven, brown pieces of bacon until crisp. Add onions and saute until tender. Add minced garlic. Deglaze pan (add a few tbsp. of white wine to the dutch oven and scrape the bottom of the pan for all little bits of stuck bacon and onions, this will add a lot of flavor to the soup broth!) Add 2 cups - 1qt chicken broth and diced potatoes. Add salt and pepper. Simmer for 15-20 minutes until potatoes are fork tender. Add chopped kale and sausage. Simmer for additional 10-15 minutes. Lastly add heavy cream or evaporated milk with a dash of red pepper flakes. Warm through and serve. Enjoy!!

Tenille -- Thank you!! And CONGRATULATIONS to you! I know you have another little one on the way!! I hope you will try the soup! I think you'd love it!

Anon -- You could certainly try to make the soup with rice milk. You may want to take 2 cups of rice milk and add 1 Tbsp. of cornstarch and heat it up to thicken it a bit. That might work! I'd be interested in your results!

Cris -- I'm sorry your soup didn't turn out for you! The recipe you linked too certainly looked tasty!! I hope you'll give this one a try sometime! Let me know how it is for you if you try it!! This time I used evaporated milk in mine, so I could cut down on the fat, but I think I'd rather just have the cream! ;-)

GLUTI GIRL -- You know I don't think I ever had kale until I had this soup! IT's a wonderful yummy green! Kale is very curly and sturdy, and in soup, even when it's cooked it holds it's shape and has crunch! It is wonderful! I like spinach, but it just wilts and gets soggy in stuff like soup, I LOVE kale now!

Emilia -- You could probably use a vegetarian sausage in the soup, although I'm not sure the "italian" flavor would come through! But I'm sure it would still be good! if you try it, please tell me what you think!

Soup, soup, glorious soup! That looks like just the thing when the wind is howling round the house and the rain is hitting the window so hard you think someone is throwing gravel at it. A big bowl of delicious comfort :-)